Misery IndexThe Killing Gods

Deathgrind could be boiled down to "A Skull Full of Maggots in Your Coffin," a combination of song titles by legends of the fusion genre's components, death metal's Cannibal Corpse and grindcore's Repulsion. Unfortunately, that doesn't do the greatest job of encapsulating the actual extremity of the resultant sound, which bashes together the technicality and brutality of the former genre with the all-pistons-firing intensity and speed of the latter.

Of course, actually listening to it does a far better job demonstrating this, with Misery Index excellently exemplifying the genre. Originally a spawn of Dying Fetus, the Baltimore band have skilfully differentiated themselves, replacing the slam breakdowns of Fetus with speedy punk-y riffs.

On The Killing Gods, the quartet have focused their craft with the omniscience of a murderous deity. While 2010's Heirs to Thievery occasionally flirted with adding "melodic" to the front of its genre, this collection proudly embraces it. That's not to say that Misery Index have softened; rather, they've found a way to make every blast-beaten whiplash embed their barbed hooks in your head.

Kicking off with the five-track compound song collectively entitled "Faust," the band quickly set a new stage for themselves. After this almost self-contained EP, the band return to what they do best: grinding. Although the occasional slow-down makes you wish the part would speed past (other velocity dips are effectively utilized), as a whole The Killing Gods is unrelentingly fast, unabashedly heavy and unequivocally the best album yet from an already great band.
(Season of Mist)